Mass Affection

This is the way the world ends, not with a scream but with a Mass Effect. Or to be more specific, a Mass Effect 3. Continue reading for my first impression and review of what has been referred to as the most anticipated game of 2012.

For those not familiar with the Mass Effect series, the story revolves around Commander Shepard and his work to stop an ancient race of alien beings known as Reapers. Mass Effect 3 starts off about six months after the events of the last game and now the Reaper threat that Shepard has been trying to warn everyone about has finally arrived with one goal: total destruction of all sentient life in the universe. In the midst of all out war with the Reapers on Earth, Shepard is forced to leave and unite the rest of the species of the universe if they are to have any chance of surviving the Reaper attack. Along the way, you recruit other characters to your squad to help out in the effort. On top of all of that, you must also deal with the clandestine group known as Cerberus, bent of furthering humankind’s development, they have their own plan involving the Reapers.

The truth is that BioWare could have produced a turd, called it “Mass Effect 3” and I still would have shelled out $79.99 for the collector’s edition, luckily, this was not the case. The game play is thoroughly enjoyable. The character development system has been expanded on since the game, giving you more freedom and customizable options when leveling up. A lot of hype has been put into the Xbox 360’s Kinect features for the game, and so far it proves relatively true. The Kinect voice commands allow you to speak real-time commands to your crew while in a firefight without having to pause or interrupt the action. The voice casting is fantastic with returning favorites and new comers, including Martin Sheen, Keith David, Lance Henriksen, Seth Green, Tricia Helfer, Yvonne Strahovski, and Freddie Prinze, Jr. As well as that, it provides an interactive, branching story line where choices you make can have a profound effect on later events in the game.

Overall, Mass Effect 3 is an incredibly well rounded action/shooter/RPG game with an amazingly engrossing story. I could gush about this all day here, except for the fact that it took all the self-control that I had to pull myself away from said game to write this review. So I will pretty much end this review now with a rare final rating.

I’m surprised how fun the multiplayer in this game actually is. In games like this, I am usually only interested in the campaign as that is where the story unfolds, but in this, I have taken a break from the single player to play a match or two.